Firstly, got my amanda palmer package in the mail courtesy of me Ma. Amanda Palmer has been everywhere in the news as of late for her various kickstarter projects that exploded with popularity when she raised of a million dollars. I jumped in a while back and contributed so I could get a cd and book and stuff but her donations continued well past the kickstarter cap of $25,000 to the point where if you donated $25,000 or $50,000 she'd consider it a loan and would actually pay it back to you with interest.
The album itself is really good as I've come to expect from her. She's released a number of videos to go with them including a version of Ewan Mccoll's "When I first saw your face". Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips recorded a version of this and made a video with Erykah Badu. But apparently Coyne released the video before it was edited to Badu's liking and Badu yanked the cord on the project. So Coyne got Amanda to do a different version and shot some new footage of amanda and released that video instead. Both feature naked women so Not Safe For Work (NSFW).
Dare to Compare:
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Amanda's album Theater is Evil was released to the public last week and is up on her website for free or for a dollar if you get the deluxe version with a few covers. The singles are "Want it Back", "The Killing Type", and "Do it with a Rockstar". The first two have videos already and the third video is en route also done with Wayne Coyne. None of those are safe for watching in your cubicle. There's also an EP for free download on her website of just those three songs if you prefer that.
Also Released this week was Grizzly Bear's "Shields" (click the link, hit the "Free download" button. Wait 30 seconds. enter the captcha, and presto! The album is yours!) The album is fantastic and everything you'd expect from Grizzly Bear. Huge walls of sound that seem to stretch out in every direction at once, loads of wonderful harmonies, a few songs with tremendous hooks, spacey far out guitar parts, and pretty quite songs that you put on when you want to relax only to have them erupt halfway through and have you rushing to your stereo to turn down the volume.
The first single is "Yet Again" and is definitely the mover and shaker of the album at first listen. Definitely worth getting...especially since i just handed it to you.
Frank Ocean who has been adding a softer contrast to Odd Future with R&B released a new video for his song Pyramids (again not safe for watching at work!) from his sophomore album Channel Orange. The video is pretty bizarre and has kind of an old samurai/spy feel to it. The song itself is split into two parts so the video follows in 4 parts (that last almost 8 minutes!) that kind of flow considering he does four shots of absinthe at the start of the video. It also has one of the weirdest cameos (5 minutes in) I've seen since Dennis hopper showed up in that Gnarls Barkley video...
He did his first appearance on TV with the Roots as his backup band on Jimmy Fallon for "Bad Religion" that was brilliant and followed it up a week or two ago on SNL with "Thinking Bout You" that started a little shaky but ended strong. The old school arcade games in the back of the stage are a nod to his last album Nostalgia Ultra (available for download from his website) which has several tracks in which you hear him loading cassette tapes into a player and playing and fast forwarding old school video game soundtracks as interludes between the other tracks. Nostalgia is pretty interesting because a number of the tracks are actually other songs that he's created new lyrics for including turning "Hotel California" into "American Wedding" and MGMT's "Electric Feel" into "Nature Feels" but still provides a number of his own original songs.
I'd recommend both of them. Both are pretty laid back listening with a lot of great sounds that nod to hip hop and soul. The intro music behind the bar scene of Pyramids is my favorite track of his called "Pink Matter" featuring the always fantastic Andre Benjamin a.k.a. Andre 3000 of Outkast fame.
Mellowhype, comprised of Hodgy Beats and Left Brain, also of the Odd Future crew, (more what you'd expect from them) released one new track every day last week in anticipation of their new album Numbers. The tracks are significantly stripped down from previous tracks. Left Brain, the producer, is known for psychedelic piano parts and oddly tuning the keyboards used to make melodies (in the typical odd future style). Left Brain also uses a bunch of really cool production techniques such as having Hodgy calmly speak his chorus in the left ear and yell it in the right creating an interesting jarring effect on "64". The released tracks are much lighter and sound more like a hazy summer afternoon compared to the very dark releases that came before (such as 64). Hodgy's rapping is much more upbeat too. You can get all the released tracks from last week here as one .zip file.
Also new this week Gaslamp Killer's first album "Breakthrough" (The song playing here is off the album and is called "Impulse") from Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label. This guy is amazing. Since 2007 he's released ten, hour-long mixes, 3 eps, multiple production credits and compilation contributions and FINALLY! FINALLY! A solo LP release! I first heard about him when I was in Amsterdam in 2008 when this guy chris at Skek, the bar I became a regular (and guest DJ after closing time) at for a week traded me all his music. Found him in a magazine written in dutch so I translated what I could but he seemed like such a weird guy I checked him out when I got back to the states and it was well worth it. Very jazzy and very video game based guy he's just a fun guy. I met him when I was working at Governor's Ball last summer in NYC. He had his signature curly mop and glasses and I seemed to be the only one who knew who he was so I got to sit and have tofu dogs with him and talk about Iggy Pop. He wasn't playing that day but was helping out and sound checking for Benga and Skream. Honestly I wish he had played instead his music choices are much more fun.
I couldn't find a link to this album anywhere so I just went ahead and did all the stupid steps neccessary to buy the mp3 album form Amazon. I do not recommend this. It's so much more effort than it's worth. The album is fantastic! Just buy it from somewhere else. Support some smalltime company that could use the help and doesn't make you download a player to download what you bought. Amazon, seriously. I give you money, you give me music. There does not need to be a third, fourth or fifth step involved here.
The album is a great sort of condensed compilation of all his styles. From his work with Gonjasufi to his video game 8-bit sounds it flows very well and has a great sense of humor about it while keeping shadowy overtones. At 47 minutes long it's a quick play but would make great work music if you were playing it in the other room. Haven't given it a serious listen with headphones on but knowing him the sounds probably run pretty deep and would be worth studying.
Flying Lotus who you will hear me praise, at long length, whether you want to hear about it or not, is one of my favorite people in music today. Nephew of jazz legend John Coltrane he is a forerunner in electronic music with a style all his own. He can make me dance, make me close my eyes and relax, make me laugh, and make me want to make more music. He's a complete work horse, producing artists, collaborating with artists, running his own record label, not to mention releasing an unfathomable amount of his own music and giving most of it away for free. His label Brainfeeder is an incredible lineup of artists. Thundercat (one of the greatest bass players in the world!), Austin Perelta (son of skateboarding legend Stacy Perelta), Dr. Strangloop, Miguel Atwood Ferguson, Daedelus, Teebs, Gaslamp Killer, and about 2 dozen other brilliant artists that are innovating soundscapes like no others. I've seen Flylo play twice and both times he puts on a hell of a show.
He's got a new album coming out at the beginning of next month called Until the Quiet Comes and in his usual fashion he's dropping new things left and right in preparation. I read a quote from someone once that said "If you're on the internet one week, and that week has a Tuesday in Already he's released an incredible short film (featuring the voice of Mizz Badu), a video for one of the singles (that looks like Metropolis if it had been done as a cartoon from the 20's in Japan), and a sampler plate of all the tracks on the album. I bought a ticket to see him in October and I am beside myself with glee. When the new album comes out you can believe I'm going to post it here and rave about it.
Finally this week, my most played track, Macklemore's "Thrift Shop". I've sent this to most everyone i know in excitement because it's so hilarious and excellent. Macklemore, is a Seattle native. After listening to his album I learned he grew up in Capitol Hill and went to school 4 blocks from where I live (remember that oprah picture about Ezell's chicken I posted? It's right across the street from that place), in a white middle class family, with both parents, two cars, a swing in his yard, and went to public school never having to get the free lunches. Seems to go against everything that is rap right? He's well aware. He comes out and says it in his song "white privilege". So instead of rapping about coming from the projects, and being broke, and drugs, and gangs, he raps about gay marriage (he's straight but has 2 gay uncles), anti-consumerism, getting a fake id as a kid, george bush, and having a slightly above average penis. He's got a great sense of humor and actually has some decent rap skill. Ryan Lewis, who does most of his music as the producer comes up with a lot of great beats and really catchy melodies. I just scanned down the wikipedia entry for this guy and says every year he has a pizza party and his fans get to prove their love of music by submitting an entry of creativity of any kind in a chance to win tickets to the party where he plays a show. Cool guy. He's dropping a new LP "The Heist" and he's playing here October 9th. Woulda bought a ticket to that show for sure cept he's sold out almost ALL of his shows til november. I'd recommend jumping on one of those tickets cause there's no doubt in my mind it'd be a ridiculous and way fun show.
Just in case you weren't sure he knows how to make fun of himself, he performed at a college in Colorado where he did a set of THIS SONG twice...and that was it. That song, back to back, then walked off stage to mass applause. Legit.
That's about it. It's still cloudy much to my chagrin. But it's late enough in the day that it doesn't matter. I think I'm going to go find a delicious box of unhealthy chinese food for six dollars and learn the names of everyone in there so they'll deliver to our apartment. (apparently we're in some kind of delivery dead zone. Most places in the popular places delivery zones end 4 blocks west of us. Life in Ghettoburbia, what're ya gonna do?)
Miss you all and wish you were all here for a massive cuddlepuddle in the living room on this dark an grey day.
Stay classy!
Wif Love
Travis.
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